Breadcrumbs

Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS)

Overview

The co-organizers and principal faculty are Christopher Bail (Duke University) and Matthew Salganik (Princeton University). The summer institute is currently offered annually. The location of the SICSS alternates between Princeton University and Duke University. The program accepts about 30 participants.

The instructional program involves lectures, group problem sets, and participant-led research projects. There are also outside speakers who conduct computational social science research in academia, industry, and government. Topics covered include text as data, website scraping, digital field experiments, non-probability sampling, mass collaboration, and ethics. There are ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with the organizers, other participants, and visiting speakers.

Participants with less experience with social science research will be expected to complete additional readings in advance of the Institute, and participants with less experience coding will be expected to complete a set of online learning modules on the R programming language. Students doing this preparatory work will be supported by a teaching assistant who will hold online office hours before the institute.

Eligibility

Participation is restricted to Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and untenured faculty within 7 years of their Ph.D. There are no restrictions based on citizenship, country of study, or country of employment.

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and fields of study, especially applicants from groups currently under-represented in computational social science. We evaluate applicants along a number of dimensions: 1) research and teaching in the area of computational social science 2) contributions to public goods, such as creating open source software, curating public datasets, and creating educational opportunities for others 3) likelihood to benefit from participation 4) likelihood to contribute to the educational experience of other participants 5) potential to spread computational social science to new intellectual communities and areas of research. Further, when making our evaluations, attempt to account for an applicant’s career stage and previous educational opportunities.

Apply

All application instructions and requirements are listed in the PDF annoucement (located on the main Summer Institutes webpage).